Mayor Bloomberg's advice to students: Become plumbers

A college education won’t necessarily fatten your pockets, but the billionaire mayor of New York City has a suggestion he wants students to consider before they sign any costly tuition checks: what about becoming a plumber?

Yes, that’s career advice courtesy of New York’s Michael
Bloomberg: the Big Apple’s media mogul-turned-billionaire mayor who
recently led an unsuccessful campaign to ban oversized sugary
drinks in his city. Now after making a name for himself as the
nanny of Manhattan, Mayor Bloomberg is apparently already
considering another career change — this time as guidance
counselor.

During his weekly radio show on Friday, Bloomberg shared some
words with listeners looking for career advice. It’s no secret that
jobs are hard to come by nowadays, and the amount of debt brought
on by unpaid college loans now surpasses what Americans owe on
their credit cards. Mayor Bloomberg offered his input on the issue
during last week’s show, and said students who aren’t destined for
the top of the class should consider another option that’s not so
costly.

“The people who are going to have the biggest problem are
college graduates who aren't rocket scientists, if you will, not at
the top of their class," Bloomberg said. "Compare a plumber
to going to Harvard College – being a plumber, actually for the
average person, probably would be a better deal."

Later, Bloomberg explained that some vocational jobs — like
plumbing — won’t ever been outsourced overseas or replaced by
machines.

“It’s hard to farm that out ... and it’s hard to automate
that,” he said.

One day later, the mayor had similar words for the graduating
class of Ohio’s Kenyon College. According to Fox News, Bloomberg
told graduates on Saturday that “I know that today’s job market
is not easy,” and acknowledged, “...today, if I interview a
recent college grad who tells me he or she spent the summer curing
cancer, bringing peace to the Middle East, and writing the Great
American Novel – I’m impressed.

Again, however, the mayor said dreams of being successful
shouldn’t be dashed just because college isn’t in the cards.
“I’m more likely to hire the person who spent his or her summer
working days, nights, and weekends for an auto-body shop or a
construction company in order to pay tuition or help with family
bills,” Bloomberg told the crowd.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for
a manual worker like a plumber in 2010 was roughly $47,000, a good
$15,000 a year annually more than other occupational workers pull
in. And as MSN pointed out, recent college grads aren’t guaranteed
much more than hefty student loans: for 2011 graduates, the average
debt went up 5.3 percent from the year before. Bloomberg, on the
other hand, was estimated to be worth $27 billion as of this
year.